I recently posted an article to Homeschooling with Heart about families reading aloud together, and it got me thinking about my own family reading over the years.

My family reads together almost everyday. We usually have one or more novels (usually historical fiction) that we’re reading at any given time. This is one of our favorite parts of each day.

When I was growing up, my mom read to me often – mostly picture books. The Berenstain Bears was my absolute favorite, and I tried to buy each new book as it was written. My mom said I was trying to send Stan and Jan Berenstain’s kids to college.

(Side note: A couple of my favorites were The Messy Room and Visit the Dentist, some of the earliest titles. I cannot stand the new titles that have been released in the last 5-10 years. The cubs’ attitudes are atrocious in these. They are not at all like the early books that I enjoyed so much.)

My dad often read to me from more “grown up” books. The two I remember especially are Little Town on the Prairie and The Family Album of Favorite Poems. I loved that book. I loved lying on my parents’ bed, listening to Dad read it. It was something like a private time just the two of us shared. My brother and sister never came in to listen – just me and dad.

My favorite poem from the book was I Shall Not Pass This Way Again by Eva Rose York. It’s somewhat melancholy so I’m not sure why it appealed to my eight-year-old self, but I’d ask Dad to read it again and again.

My favorite part …

I love the beauty of the scene
Would roam again o’er fields so green;
But since I may not, let me spend
My strength for others to the end,–
For those who tread on rock and stone,
And bear their burdens all alone,
Who loiter not in leafy bowers,
Nor hear the birds nor pluck the flowers.